That's exactly correct. Baseball is like a microcosm of America, it's always has been that way. They are going to degrade the game to make a few extra millions per year.
According to a report in The Athletic, the Cubs will shop Contreras if they can't get an extension worked out. I don't know what that timeline would look like though. I'm guessing by the Winter meetings, but I don't really have a clue. Who they may replace him with is something I'd really like to know. I have no idea who is available. A 34-year-old Yan Gomes or a 34 year old Manny Pina?
I’m not much of a scout or whatever, but I think fields has the tools to be a good QB. He doesn’t have the talent around him. However, you can see the separation between him and Brady. He needs a good coach(es), game plan, and talent.
Brett has a write up about the Cubs potential strategy that makes sense to me. And I agree with him, if they go short-term high AAV and end up missing out on the guys they target resulting in seconds and odds and ends they will have failed miserably. https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2021/10/23/can-the-cubs-actually-afford-to-sit-out-the-deeper-end-of-the-free-agent-pool-entirely/
They got spent by the Giants. It's why a seven game series is important. They need to shorten the season by two weeks and have all playoffs series be seven games.
Who are they going to replace him with? It's not trading him that is the main problem, it's replacing him. Especially, on a team that is absent talent.
They already cut a bunch of teams, I'm not sure how much more they could realistically chop. (Not that they might not try.) They could not have set out a better to plan to kill baseball if they tried. Naked greed.
I'm a little bit late on this thread, but why in Jah's name would the Cubs be interested in trading Willson Contreras if they say they plan to be competitive soon? The only way I could squint and see it is if they got a cheaper version of him in return. If they trade him they are tacitly admitting that they have no plans to compete any season soon.
Is errors a good way to judge a 17 year old playing SS? We don't even know the field conditions. It isn't like these are even minor league quality ball fields.
How can you hate the Dodgers? They are the smartest organization in baseball and go and get the pieces to stay at the top of the standings every year. I would love an ownership group and front office like the Dodgers.
They'll be fine if they win out. It was very early in the season and Oregon will finish with a decent resume. Ohio State has recovered from early non-conference losses to make the playoffs before and they still have games left against Penn State, Michigan State and Michigan to fatten up their resume. I guess the key is 'if they win out'. They've looked a lot better of late and maybe are putting it together but they looked really shaky the first few weeks of the season so we'll see. It would help if Big Blue would start doing its job in their biggest annual game, but... Michigan needs a quarterback
It is hard to take a "wait and see" attitude with this ownership, but all things being equal, the Cubs are in a good position to nab talent and get right back into contention in a very mediocre division.
You and I both know very well that the Cardinals are somehow going to end up winning the WS. That franchise is just blessed that way. Seriously. They have easily the worst team to ever win it (06), maybe the 2nd-worst (11) and if they hadn't gagged a 3-1 lead to SF in 12, they'd probably have won that year too with a playoff spot that had never existed before the season. This is what they do. The 2011 team was blessed by playing against the worst-managed team to ever appear in a WS.